Congressional Republicans are mulling the sale of some public lands to help pay for a massive bill to enact President Donald Trump’s domestic agenda, according to lawmakers aware of the discussions.
House Natural Resources Chair Bruce Westerman said one concept under review would involve selling some lands around Western cities or national parks to build more housing.
“It would just be in areas where you can’t get affordable housing, like for gateway communities,” said Westerman in an interview, “so you could actually have people to work in the national parks, maybe around some big metropolitan areas in the West.”
It’s still far from guaranteed this will make it into a final package, however, with more than one GOP lawmaker saying it would be a nonstarter.
Montana Republican Sen. Steve Daines has already made his objections known to leaders, said an aide in a text message: “Senator Daines has never and will never support the sale of public lands.”
Another Montana Republican, Rep. Ryan Zinke — who served as Interior secretary in Trump’s first term — said he has also told House leadership public land sales are a red line for him.
“I have made clear: There are some things I won’t do,” he said. “I will never bend on the Constitution, and I won’t bend on selling our public lands.”
Democrats are also due to create a political headache for Republicans if the GOP pursues such proposals.
“If they succeed, Donald Trump and Elon Musk will sell off your right to access the places you know and love: The place you first learned to fish or harvested your first elk,” Senate Energy and Natural Resources ranking member Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) said in a statement. “The campground your family goes to on long weekends. The trail you hike to clear your head. The site that was sacred to your ancestors and is now sacred to you.”
Republicans are talking about this idea at a time when lawmakers are scrambling to find big savings and revenue generators for the party-line bill they want to pass through reconciliation in the coming months.
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